Veerendrakumar said he would join the UDF campaign against the breakdown of law and order as well as goonda raj in the state. Front convener P P Thankachan said the Dal leader described the circumstances under which he left the CPM-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) of which he had been part and parcel of since its formation. Veerendrakumar said CPM State secretary Pinarayi Vijayan had been running the affairs of the LDF according to his whims and fancies for some years now.

He and his party had to leave the front as there was no sense of democracy in it and smaller parties were made to toe the CPM’s line on various issues. Serious differences had cropped up between Veerendrakumar and Vijayan after the Janata Dal (Secular) leader was denied his sitting seat of Kozhikode in the Lok Sabha elections.

Instead, the Janata Dal was asked to contest from Wayanad, traditionally a Congress bastion. It was believed that Vijayan was trying to cut Veerendrakumar down to size for his alleged siding with Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan in the CPM’s factional struggle.

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